A Side Character's Mission ↠ Solo Leveling

Chapter 8: Emergency Quest

^I imagine Seung-Eun like this but with shorter hair. Credit to the artist, pinterest.

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"Oh? I'm getting the magic cores." Jin-Woo hopped down from the monster and showed him the glowing crystals on his palm.

"Oh..."

Jin-Woo eyed the calm younger male and then the stacked up mana crystals on the ground. "And what were you doing while I was fighting the boss?"

"I was mining the mana crystals! Like they said, if it's worth is around ten million won, then hyung and I can get five million won each. Isn't it great? We are going to get rich by this!" Imaginary dollar symbol appeared on Seung-Eun eyes as he responded bubbly.

"You are not sharing it with Hunter Yoo Jin-Ho? And why do you get half of the amount when I'm the one who defeated the boss?" Jin-Woo raised his eyebrows at him.

"Jin-Ho hyung is already rich and about the ratio..." Before the light blonde haired male could finish speaking, he felt a sharp pain on his forehead and abruptly stopped. "Hyung! Why did you flick my forehead?"

"You should've searched a way to get out of here instead of mining the crystals"

"How dare you... But I trust that hyung can defeat the monster."

"That..." Jin-Woo turned away his sight briefly. The person in front of him probably assumed that he received a Double Reawakening, but, his case was more complicated since people with Double Reawakening usually had fixed abilities while he could improve his. "Don't trust my abilities too much since I have a different case than others... It's complicated."

"I see... But isn't that good? People won't call you with that stupid nickname anymore and you can earn more income for your family."

"Right." Jin-Woo suddenly smiled, reminded of the wish he had when he was held in the hospital after the Double Lair. 'It would be nice to have him as a younger brother.'

"That's right. So now you don't have to worry about me whenever we raid together."

"Now you are being boastful."

Hiding the sudden arouse of the joyful feelings Jin-Woo had, he turned away to check the other Hunter.

Droplets of sweat rolled on Jin-Ho's face as he forced a smile and held the bag pack that Jin-Woo carried earlier.

"Would you care to store your magic crystals here, Sir?"

"Sir, you're thirsty, right? Please have this. It's water."

"Phew, the equipment was obviously in the bag. What bad people. I will mine the crystals now that we're here."

Jin-Ho started to mine the mana crystals while Seung-Eun failed miserably in containing his laughter.

"Why is he like this?" asked Jin-Woo.

"Jin-Ho hyung is shock to see that an E-rank Hunter can defeat a C-rank boss. He even called you a false ranker."

"I guess that's understandable." Jin-Woo replied, turning the cap of the water bottle. "But what about you? You don't look surprised."

"Why do you think?"

Jin-Woo didn't have the chance to reply when the blocked way earlier suddenly exploded, sending small  debris to their way. As the dust cleared, silhouettes of the squad of eight Hunters appeared.

"What, those guys are still alive?"

"Is the boss dead?!"

"What happened?"